It’s been said that Twitter is getting ready to name its new chief executive, and that person is likely cofounder Jack Dorsey. Sources told Re/code that the company could name him its permanent CEO as early as tomorrow, and that Dorsey would remain as leader of his other company, Square.
Dorsey was appointed as interim CEO in July following the resignation of Dick Costolo after six years of leading Twitter. During this transition period, at least one member of the company’s board had stressed that they’d like a full-time CEO, not one who would split their duties between two companies. But over the past three months, there has been pressure by external parties for the board to quicken its pace.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1813411,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,social,","session":"C"}']Re/code reported that the move to elevate Dorsey to permanent CEO isn’t unexpected, as he appeared to be the heavy favorite. With the conclusion of the search, it’s also believed that there will be a reorganization of Twitter’s board with at least one director stepping down: Costolo.
What about other favorite choice Adam Bain, Twitter’s head of revenue? It’s said that he opted out of taking on the CEO role if Dorsey was still in the running.
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This would herald Dorsey’s second stint as CEO — when the company launched, he served in that role. He was also executive chairman starting in 2011 before returning as interim CEO. Now he’s primed to take over once again to perhaps finally lead the company how he wanted to in the first place. But there are challenges.
Twitter’s user numbers aren’t growing, and Dorsey knows it. Perhaps having one of the cofounders reclaim the throne at Twitter isn’t a bad thing because they might be well placed to really know the DNA of the service, right? During the Q2 2015 earnings, Dorsey said in a statement, “we are not satisfied with our growth in audience. In order to realize Twitter’s full potential, we must improve in three key areas: ensure more disciplined execution, simplify our service to deliver Twitter’s value faster, and better communicate that value.”
But besides Twitter, how will Dorsey deal with the fact that his other company is getting ready to go public very soon? Is there enough confidence from potential shareholders to buoy Square’s public debut and success?
At the very least, it seems that Dorsey’s vision has finally won over Twitter’s board, to the point where they appear to have backtracked on that whole “no part-time CEO” thing.
Twitter declined to comment for this story, but shares in the company are up 2.36 percent (as of this publishing) at $26.19. We’ve also reached out to Square to see what that company has to say and will update if we hear back.
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